Oh! Gizmo

By David Ponce

Whether it’s the result of a CNN induced institutional paranoia or the consequence of real tangible threats, most people these days are concerned with protecting their privacy. And one of the devices that holds the most personal data is a cellphone, so it stands to reason that some people would take to locking their phone with a password. Passwords however are so Mobile 1.0. All the rage these days is with biometrics, and a company called Oki Electric has announced the development of iris recognition technology that uses a cellphone’s regular camera, as opposed to the company’s previous offerings, which required an IR camera.

They plan to release their product in March 2007, and once installed on a compatible phone, should allow the users to unlock the device only when in the presence of the right set of eyes. The technology is allegedly very accurate, with error rates of 1 in 100,000. It is also able to distinguish between real eyes, and photographs. However, rather than seeking a better way to secure the data on phone, the company is looking to boost the security of phone based payment systems, which, if you ask us, is as good a reason as any.

[Press Release] VIA [Pink Tentacle]

By David Ponce

Being horizontally challenged is not easy. I’d know. I had to lose 50 pounds, once. It was less fun than watching dry paint get dryer. But you know something? I’m glad I lost it; I didn’t just give up and give in to the sweet, sweet call of delicious fried chicken. And to me, there seems to be something oddly fatalistic about HP’s new “Slimming” feature found in some digital camera models; it’s something that says “Can’t lose weight? Take the digital way out!” You know you’ve lost control over a part of your life when you start finding features, in gadgets, that help you deal with it.

But anyway, it works like this.

You take a picture, and then, right from the camera, you can apply some post-processing. Among the many options, like “Vintage”, “Soft Glow” and such, you can find one that says “Slimming”. Select that, and then proceed to squash your subject. You can control the degree of distortion, presumably so you don’t end up looking like an unnatural spaghetti.

The feature is available on 7 different models, like the M628 and M527.

[HP Digital Camera Slimming] VIA [FayerWayer]

By Ian Chiu

If you fancy the day of bringing every Windoze app with you on the road, Ceedo 2.0 along with InstallAnything will make your dream come true… sorta. The two cost some $70 together, and let you run .exe install files on a Ceedo platform, running on a USB flash drive. If you are lucky to get them to work, the programs are for you to run anywhere. Everything USB has a newbie guide on this U3 contender.

One of the most compelling features of Ceedo is the fact that it maintains its own file structure that matches right up to Windows. There are the Program Files and Windows folders, the All Users and %userprofile% directories, and even a registry. Ceedo uses these by capturing and changing file calls to their respective cloned folders on the portable drive, and even makes it so that clicking Desktop or My Documents in the Save As dialog boxes will redirect to the respective folders located on the flash drive. With such advanced capabilities under the hood, it’s not unreasonable to think that Ceedo could run practically any program.

Capitalizing on this idea, Ceedo has released InstallAnything, a $30 add-on that allows you to run any .exe setup file to install a program to Ceedo. How well it works is a different matter, which is why I’m glad that there’s a 45 day free trial for users to determine whether or not it’s worth it to them.

[Ceedo 2.0 & InstallAnything Newbie Guide @ Everything USB]

By David Ponce

The endless possibilities for Microsoft jokes have caused a serious case of writer’s block. I believe it senseless that I should have spent the best part of a quarter hour looking for something smart to say about this. So, I’ll say nothing more than this: here you have a picture of someone, unidentified, who likes Microsoft Windows so much… he went and added a Windows theme to his house. Yes, we’re aware the picture was in this month’s PC Mag, but we didn’t read it, and we don’t know who this fellow is.

So, there you have it. A Window’s themed house.

VIA [Gadgetblog.it]

By David Ponce

This is an amazing piece of software for your pocket PC or Palm that promises to improve your typing speed severalfold. It uses a clever combination of predictive text input, and six large buttons, each containing a portion of the alphabet, all arranged QWERTY style. Simple as that. Simply press each button that contains the letter you want once, and type in your word. Having six large buttons means your accuracy is improved, and consequently your typing speed.

How fast can you type? Well, if you come inside, you can watch a somewhat freaky video of a Japanse Singaporean/Malaysian (my apologies) lady typing at 72wpm.

The best part? It’s free! The company also offers an enhanced version (nicer UI, more words in the dictionary), which goes between $13 and $25 depending on the device you’ll use it on.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

Well here’s a simple yet impressive piece of software. PrinterAnywhere allows you to print a document on other people’s printers anywhere in the world as easily as it is on a locally connected one. The only real requirement is that the other printer has to be connected to a system that’s online.

Sharing a printer takes less than a minute to do and you don’t need to know the first thing about network sharing, complicated settings or any kind of access rights either. As long as you’re able to use your connected printer anyone else online can be allowed to as well.

I originally thought this was more of a neat trick than a useful app but it turns out there are a lot of good reasons to have this functionality. For example it’s far cheaper than a fax and results in a perfect copy of the original document. Other times you may want to provide printed copies of a document to someone but do not want to forward the original files for fear of them being altered. And of course there’s always mom or dad who have no clue on how to use that fancy new inkjet they bought but want to print out photos of the grandkids.

Best of all PrinterAnywhere is a free download available right now with absolutely no service charges of any kind.

[PrinterAnywhere] VIA [The Red Ferret Journal]

By Andrew Liszewski

Large companies having secret research labs is by no means a new thing but these days they seem more open to showing the public what they’ve been working on even if the technology is far from ready for the average consumer. No doubt we can thank Google Labs for this trend.

Microsoft’s own Live Labs has just released a look inside a new piece of software they’ve been cooking up called Photosynth. The idea of the program is pretty simple. Looking at regular 2D photos is boring so why not assemble a collection of photos of a particular place, person or object into a kind of 3D interactive version? This won’t really work for photographers who just grab a single far away photo of something but if you’re the type who loves to take plenty of detail shots this could prove interesting.

The software basically analyzes a group of images and looks for similar distinctive features across photos. When a particular feature is found in multiple images the 3D positional data can be calculated and the photos can be arranged in an interactive manner like in the above screenshots allowing you to pan around and zoom in or out on certain areas. A more practical use of this technology as suggested by Microsoft would be to grab a photo of a landmark with your cameraphone and then via image analysis similar to what Photosynth uses the name of the place as well as more info could be instantly found online.

Photosynth is not currently available for download but a public beta version is apparently in the works.

[Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth] VIA [Ars Technica]

By David Ponce

We’ve written about desktop applications that redefine the user interface dynamic before. But I have to say we’re a little smitten with this one: the BumpTop prototype.

It seeks to approximate the way we handle documents in a real world setting. You know what I’m talking about; piles of sheets here, scattered magazines there… Now, I do a pretty bad job of describing this. Instead, come inside and watch a fascinating 6 minute video of an early prototype.

The company says that if they get funding, they’ll grow it into a full OS. I have a feeling money’s on the way.

Read the rest of this entry »

By David Ponce

Looks like Nokia is trying to ride the widget gravy train, and it’s calling its initiative Widsets. They’re basically widgets for your mobile.

Like its PC and Mac counterparts, Widsets are tiny apps that enable to do all sorts of things, like get weather updates, get your favorite headlines, etc. And it looks like all you need is the following: Java MIDP 2.0, a 128×128 color screen or higher and internet access on your mobile, though WidSets does not currently work with Nextel, T-Mobile USA or BREW-enabled phones (e.g. Verizon, Alltel, U.S. Cellular), or Palm devices.

Now, if you’re like me, you’ll start looking for the word Nokia on the Widsets site… and have a hard time finding it. This intrigues me. It is there, though it’s buried in the TOS page. Speculation, anyone?

[Widsets] VIA [Xataka]